🔧 BUILD 1972 Beetle Chassis Build

Kizzlebizz

Regular
Oct 26, 2020
494
1,780
I posted in the "what you working on" and figured I might as well make a build thread for this.

My wife's 1972 beetle. I like the just terrible body and rust, but I'd like it to be reliable and stop...you know, the important shit. The goal here is to replace the floor pans, completely overhaul and restore the drivetrain and chassis, then bolt the crusty body back down and go fishing. Car already has disc brakes, drop spindles and wheels. I'll be making sure all of that is good, then replacing bushings, shocks, and all the rubber wear items on the chassis. I have a 1914cc dual carb big valve engine that will go in. Should clock off high 8's in the 1/8th, and be relatively reliable. For reference, these cars full weight have a 0-60 somewhere north of 20 seconds, so going from 60hp to 110hp makes a world of difference. Either way here's the pics.


I dragged it outta the woods in 2015 to get it running again.
PpuaGOI.jpg


Drop spindes, disc brakes, and drove it around a bit.

svXwDCg.jpg


Some artistic stuff my sister took.

13063457_10153554833122644_463739566428735509_o.jpg



It's current condition. Stripped and ready for metal work. Buy stock in black paint.

PXL_20211120_190544881.jpg


PXL_20211120_190557956.jpg
 

Kizzlebizz

Regular
Oct 26, 2020
494
1,780
I'm thinking he meant high 8's for 0-60...

You would be correct. I miss-typed in my OP and fixed it...8's in the 1/4 would be cooking lol. Either way, I'm hoping to cut the 1/8 mile in the 8's. Mid 8's would be a pretty peppy car compared to what they are stock. I had a 73 Super in high school that would clock off the 1/8th at like 9.7 at 61, and it was a full weight car with a 1641 and a single 2 barrel.

These things are fun to make fast, but just not as cost effective as it used to be. I have a $500 set of carbs, $700 on a set of heads and cam, $500ish into the bottom end, plus machine work on the case and all of the odds and ends it takes to make double stock horsepower. I'm in it for over $2k simply to make 110hp and cut a mid 8 1/8th mile. Then...I still gotta worry about the trans.

All that said, these respond very very well to suspension mods, and on a track with a decent tire will out perform or hang with many modern cars in it's class, even if it's severely lacking in straight line performance. I'm not saying it's a corvette eater or anything, but it does very well when compared to it's equivalent, especially considering it's a 50 year old car.
 

Kizzlebizz

Regular
Oct 26, 2020
494
1,780
I got the engine apart. It was running but pissing oil. I slapped it together in a hurry a couple years ago for the dune buggy but it never had much run time. I needed to fix the studs for the oil pump and the oil filter and reseal it. Hopefully that wont take long.

PXL_20211130_232313499.jpg





The other day I got the pans cut out, and tonight I spent time getting the rest of the old metal out on the drivers. I found some areas that I'll be doing metal repair near the drivers side. Tomorrow evening I should be able to get all of the old metal off of the passenger side. I have a small air compressor that started to make smells from running so long powering my air hammer, so it's pretty slow going.

261738189_608117800503875_2723610138239870279_n.jpg


PXL_20211130_232300040.jpg


PXL_20211130_232251545.jpg


PXL_20211130_231939963.jpg
 

Kizzlebizz

Regular
Oct 26, 2020
494
1,780
Got the pans painted and even got it to work through the seam. Sealed up all the seams with some asphalt sealer and put some sound deadening on the pans.

Spent time last night getting the wheel bearings repacked and started reassembling the brakes.

Gonna work on rears tonight and tomorrow.

PXL_20220309_231233096.jpg


PXL_20220309_231257598.jpg


received_1422141171534412.jpeg


received_498586448374477.jpeg


PXL_20220309_234058899.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: IZZy

Kizzlebizz

Regular
Oct 26, 2020
494
1,780
They built these in Mexico up until 2003, there is so many clean examples still roaming the streets down there I always wondered how difficult/expensive it would be to import one.

I saw a 1995 down here in Alabama for like $5k the other day. Already registered and ready to go. Didn't seem like a bad deal.

If we didn't have a connection to this specific car I'd have chunked it and probably sold out of the air cooled game.

Found the ad.

Screenshot_20220312-124444.png
 
  • Like
Reactions: IZZy

Kizzlebizz

Regular
Oct 26, 2020
494
1,780
Spent Friday night getting the engine assembled. I need case work on the big one, so I slapped new pistons and cylinders in another one I had laying around. It's now a 1641, small tube header and muffler. Sounds good.

PXL_20220319_210619675.jpg




Sunday I called a bunch of dudes over and picked the body up and put it on the pan for the final meeting. No pics of that, but we were able to get it to fire off in the car.

Still need to get all the bolts in and put a fuel tank in it, sort the wiring to make sure everything works. Tyler was cool enough to do a good bit or wiring work for me yesterday while I did all the odds and ends stuff, like try to find parts in my shit show of a garage. Ordering an electric fuel pump today and going to see if my gas tank is any good. Probably needs a good cleaning. I'll post more as I go along.
 

Thread Info